Bitcoin was trading around $77,350 after the estimated $6.3 billion Binance exploit triggered heavy selling across digital assets and drove cryptocurrency futures liquidations to $1.57 billion.
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly dropped to $76,400, its lowest price since Sept. 18, following the attack on Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. The breach has been attributed to North Korean-linked hackers by blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Elliptic.
BTC later recovered some ground, while Ether (ETH) briefly fell to $2,170 before climbing back toward $2,220.
Authorities and blockchain partners have frozen approximately $3 billion in assets linked to the incident. Binance has also paused withdrawals while addressing the security breach.
The broader risk-off environment was reinforced by weakness in technology stocks. Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 2.3% after Amazon (AMZN) lifted its capital expenditure forecast, while Intel (INTC) shares plunged around 25% following weaker-than-expected guidance.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $17 million in inflows on Thursday, extending their positive streak to four consecutive trading sessions, according to Farside Investors. The inflows came before the Binance exploit began.
Crypto Derivatives Face Heavy Liquidations
Liquidations climb sharply: Crypto futures liquidations increased fourfold to $1.57 billion after the Binance incident triggered a broad market decline. Trading volume jumped 74% to $346.1 billion, while open interest dropped 3% to $136.3 billion. The decline in open interest suggests traders closed positions and capital moved out of derivatives markets. The taker buy-sell volume ratio also showed a slight selling bias after remaining balanced the previous day.
Bitcoin and ether show different positioning: Bitcoin declined 3.1% over 24 hours, but its open interest slipped only 1.4%, suggesting some funds entered the market during the downturn. Ether fell 4%, while its open interest contracted 5.8%, indicating a modest withdrawal of capital.
BTC funding rates remained positive and increased, meaning traders holding long positions continued paying those betting against the market. ETH funding also stayed positive but declined, signaling weaker bullish positioning.
Bitcoin and ether together represented more than half of all liquidations, accounting for $522 million and $361 million, respectively.
SOL and NEAR see futures outflows: Solana (SOL) open interest dropped 13.3% despite a 3.3% price decline, pointing to significant capital leaving its futures market. NEAR’s price barely moved, but its open interest fell 11.8%, marking a second consecutive session of outflows.
Funding rates for both tokens turned negative, meaning short sellers were paying long traders. Their cumulative volume delta (CVD) readings also remained negative, indicating that market sell orders dominated buying activity.
BNB derivatives remain active: BNB lost 6.2%, the largest decline among major cryptocurrencies, while its dollar-denominated open interest remained broadly unchanged. Trading volume more than tripled. Negative funding rates showed that shorts were paying longs, while negative CVD indicated stronger selling through market orders.
HYPE attracts fresh capital: HYPE moved in the opposite direction, rising 15% as open interest climbed 28%. Its trading volume increased almost eightfold, suggesting a substantial rise in derivatives activity.
Funding rates remained positive and increased, meaning long traders were paying more to maintain their positions. Positive CVD readings also showed that market purchases outweighed market sales.
Funding signals become increasingly divided: Most major cryptocurrencies continued to have positive funding rates, indicating that long positions were paying shorts. However, negative funding spread to BNB, SOL, NEAR and TRX, where short traders were paying long holders.
TRX recorded the most negative funding overnight. Monero (XMR) had the highest positive funding rate, followed by HYPE.
Selling pressure spreads across major tokens: Most major cryptocurrencies recorded negative 24-hour open-interest-adjusted CVD readings. TRX, HYPE, ZEC, XMR and BCH were the exceptions. The negative readings elsewhere indicate that market sell orders exceeded buy orders relative to open interest.
Options traders seek downside protection: Five of the six most actively traded bitcoin options were put contracts with strike prices below the prevailing market price. The most active was a $74,000 put expiring Nov. 13.
The bearish positioning was even more pronounced in ether options. A $2,000 put expiring Nov. 13 recorded more than twice the trading volume of any other ETH contract, while only one of the six most-traded options was a call.
Put demand increases across BTC and ETH: The 25-delta skew, which compares the cost of put options with calls, climbed across all measured time frames for both bitcoin and ether. The increase suggests traders are paying more for protection against further price declines.
Thirty-day implied volatility indices also jumped during Asian trading as the Binance breach fueled demand for put options. However, some of those gains were subsequently reversed.
Token Prices Recover From Binance-Related Selling
Tokens reportedly held and sold by the Binance attacker featured prominently in the market rebound. Ethena (ENA) gained 8.4%, Pepe (PEPE) advanced 7.3%, Uniswap (UNI) climbed 4.6% and Chainlink (LINK) added 3.7%.
Uniswap and Aave had each dropped roughly 11% on Thursday as the attacker converted assets into ether, according to Lookonchain.
Aave (AAVE) and Arbitrum (ARB) subsequently recovered around 4.5%. Aave had frozen lending markets across 16 networks after the exploiter borrowed approximately $44.6 million in ether using stolen USDT as collateral.
Thorchain (RUNE) rose 6.2% after Elliptic and onchain investigator ZachXBT traced a portion of the stolen funds into Ethereum through the cross-chain protocol.
LayerZero (ZRO) jumped 12%, recording the strongest performance in the CoinDesk 100. Curve (CRV) moved in the opposite direction, falling 7.2%, while Tron (TRX) declined 4.9%.
Broader sentiment indicators also deteriorated. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index fell to 45 from 54 on Thursday, while its Fear and Greed Index dropped to 36 from 43, indicating deeper market-wide fear.
